Media Jobs Monthly Newsletter

The HR world has changed drastically over the last few years. Candidate pools are growing, HR departments are shrinking, employers are becoming much pickier about the talent they are looking for, and now working in human resources means dealing with the Supreme Court's ruling on health insurance.

One example of how the ruling might affect your company, notes Society of Human Resources Management, is that health plans can't discriminate based on eligibility or benefits. That means dental insurance for managers shouldn't kick in immediately while lower level employees are forced to wait 90 days. Your company may not be doing that, but it's worth looking over SHRM’s breakdown just in case.

Another big issue in the hiring process today is the overlooking of top candidates. Hiring managers are either too specific or too vague in what they're look for, causing serious miscommunication with their recruiters. In order to find the brightest, most creative talent, recruiters need to be creative in their sourcing and recruiting methods. Many attractive candidates are passive candidates -- they're already employed and not constantly checking job boards. Building a large pipeline of contacts and companies plus implementing fresh sourcing techniques could help you snag the already employed candidates your company really needs.

Meanwhile, ATS systems are supposed to make your professional life easier by streamlining the application process, but they're actually having the reverse effect. It's even been reported that some job seekers are choosing not to apply at certain companies strictly because of a non-functioning ATS. If even the always forward-thinking Apple uses a confusing ATS system for its recruiting, perhaps we all need to think different about the process.

Jessica Carlson
Client Services Associate

Supreme Court Upholds Individual Health Insurance Mandate (SHRM)
The law that requires virtually all Americans to buy health insurance or pay a tax is constitutional, the Supreme Court announced in June. This should be a "stabilizing factor" for employers and HR, who should begin to educate themselves now on the new provisions of the law.

HR Staffs, Recruiters Overlook Qualified Job Seekers (USA Today)
"Job descriptions are often too vague or too specific, and HR staffers may rule out qualified applicants because they don't understand what hiring managers want." And layoffs in HR departments and staffing agencies mean that the recruiters remaining have less time to spend on each job vacancy, exacerbating the problem.

The Recruiter Honeypot (Elaine Wherry)
Faced with a need to find a recruiter, Elaine Wherry did something unprecedented: She created a fictional persona and waited for said persona to be poached. The logic being that any recruiter smart enough to identify the honeypot's talent would be one good enough to recruit for Wherry for real. Read how it turned out.

Even Kings of UI Struggle With the ATS (Fistful of Talent)
In a well-deserved rant against the applicant tracking system industry, Fistful of Talent blogger Jessica Lee finds out that even Apple, designer of products that three-year-olds can intuitively use, is "just as impacted by an ugly ATS and recruiting technology that does nothing for the user." Will technology providers ever begin designing with the user in mind?

5 Tips for Building Bigger Pipelines (Fordyce Letter)
Spend time every day adding new names of people and companies. It might take time but it's crucial, argues sourcing researcher Ryan Phillips. Keep the information cross-referenced with your ATS or other system, because pipelining can be extremely valuable for the quick recruitment of passive candidates.

Being Unemployed Makes You an 'Unlikely' Date (MediaJobsDaily)
Take with a grain of salt, as the survey showing that many women won't date jobless men was conducted by It's Just Lunch, which specializes in connecting employed professionals. But chalk the study up to more evidence that being unemployed hurts not just your wallet and well-being, but also your social life.

Five Signs They're Ready to Be an Editor (Mediabistro)
When does a writer get promoted to editor? After he or she has met all five of these qualities, including being able to generate ideas, focus stories to razor-sharp points and more.